1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to coaxial connectors and particularly relates to a bending coaxial electrical connector for connecting at least two modules or IC boards so that high frequency signals can be transmitted.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the present high frequency transmission applications that involves computing or telecommunication terminals, individual module or IC boards of the terminals are normally connected via coaxial cables and coaxial electrical connectors so that modulization or function zones and/or online testability and/or easy maintenance can be realized.
In the current art, a coaxial electrical connector typical comprises an outer conductor with a tubular section for connecting and engaging a tubular portion of a complementary connecter fixed on the IC board, a dielectric body molded in the tubular section of the outer conductor, and a center conduct terminal which is fixed in position by the dielectric body and is comprised of a connecting section for connecting to the center conductor of the coaxial cable and a contact section for contacting a terminal of the complementary connector.
In order to provide a secure connection between the center terminal of the coaxial electrical connector and the center conductor of the coaxial cable, one common application is to provide a V shaped clamp as the connecting section of the center terminal that disposed in alignment with or perpendicular to the extending direction of the coaxial cable, and then soldering or mechanically fixing the center conductor to the clamp. Particularly, the center conductor can be fixed to the center terminal by pressing the outer conductor of the coaxial electrical connector and hence the dielectric, both arms of the V shaped clamp can be brought together so that the center conductor is securely fixed within the clamp.
Although coaxial electrical connector of the above mentioned structure would meet the minimum performance requirement during signal transmission, and failure of the connection between the center conductor and the connecting section of the center terminal rarely occur, in case that the center conductor of the coaxial cable is soldered on to the center terminal of the electrical connector, stable contact between the center terminal of the coaxial electrical connector and the center terminal of the complementary connector may not be achieved and the dielectric constant of the tubular section of the outer conductor may be affected due to the solder residue or other contamination particle remained at the soldering interface within the tubular section, and electrical characters, especially the RF (radio frequency character) of the connector may be degraded as a consequence. Although the residue or contamination particle could be by removed by an additional cleaning process, this further process would increase production cost and is time consuming.
In case that the center conductor is press fixed onto the center terminal, although the pressing process is somehow simple to apply and will have no obvious mechanical connection problem even if the center conductor of the coaxial cable is slightly deflected from the axial that is orthogonal to the axial of the center conductor, the electrical character, e.g. RF character of the connection can be degraded due to the deflection of the characteristic impedance when the center conductor is deflected from a predetermined center position. Moreover, the connection can be impaired when the coaxial cable is pulled or pushed by an external force which may result in instable electrical character, especially RF character of the connection. Although alignment of the press connection can be promoted to increase the precision of the connection, the precision of the assembling tool set shall be promoted which means higher cost and possible low yield.
In addition, high stability of the characters of the connection can hardly be achieved as the depth of the center conductor of the coaxial cable extended in the center terminal could not be observed as thus proper positioning of the center conductor is hardly possible.
In summary, problems may arise in several aspect of the current electrical connector, e.g. stability of electrical characters, mass production cost and feasibility of manufacturing.